The Barneswald Adventures: The Curse of the Dead (Series 2)
by marvelwho
Summary: 2/12. The Curse of the Dead: After an ancient Mayan curse is awoken, Bucky, Clara and Lucy must try to find out how to defeat an evil mummy.
1. Chapter 1

The museum was absolutely crammed with tourists. Excited young children rushed past the humungous whale skeleton that had been hung on the orange wall, adults laughed at the stuffed bears in the Animal Kingdom section and tour guides rolled their eyes when yet another guest tripped over the wires leading out from the projector screen in the main hall. Popcorn had been introduced to the museum to attract tourists and it seemed to be working. More people flocked to the building than they had ever done before.

Bucky was stood beside the stuffed zebra in the fake jungle room with the cardboard popcorn box in hand. He didn't understand as to why the Zebra had been placed beside a polar bear. They don't even share a habitat. He was about to inform Clara of this mistake when he turned around and noticed that she was no longer there. Instead, she was halfway across the room reading information on illegal poaching. She could feel the sweat beginning to drench her red blouse and she blew onto her hair. Bucky's hand grabbed hold of her shoulder and she rotated to face him.

'It's too hot in here,' she protested against the heat, cheekily wiping a bit of sweat on Bucky's blue jumper. 'I don't know how you can wear that jumper.'

'I didn't know it was going to be this warm,' he wiped his brow. 'There's something called air-conditioning and I'm pretty sure this museum would do so much better with it.'

'I have to agree with you there, babe. Let's go and see what is in the other room. Quite frankly that massive stationery elephant terrifies me.'

Before Bucky could even say anything, Clara grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him past the still sloth on the artificial branch and into a very unusual corridor. After seeing the next room, the pair strolled in and realised it was a Mayan exhibit. Old stone vases were protected by thick glass and large paintings of Chechen Itza were hung on the dark walls.

'Eurgh,' winced Clara as she approached a six foot long coffin in the middle of the room. Staring up at her was a mummified person. 'That is ghastly.'

The mummy was beige in colour and its ribs were poking outwards. Its eye sockets were black and without eyes and its grotesque mouth seemed to move slightly. Its feet didn't exactly look indestructible and you could have easily scooped them up with one finger and thumb. A large blue ribbon stopped anyone from touching it.

'Apparently this mummy was a female called Catalina,' Bucky read from the grey information stand. 'Died after being sacrificed.'

'How cheery.'

'Wait,' he bent down and examined the bottom of the coffin closely. 'Look at this.'

Engraved into the stone coffin were multiple Mexican symbols according to the museum but to Bucky and Clara they didn't look earthly. They looked unearthly.

'What do you think it all means?'

'Hang on,' Clara tried to edge as close to the coffin as she could. 'I think I've seen these symbols before.'

After four minutes of scrolling through the camera roll on her phone, Clara found a picture she had taken from an adventure with the Doctor from about six months ago. The symbols were of an unknown origin and she had taken a picture of them all. Bucky was grateful. People kept walking by and staring at them, wondering why they were on the floor.

'Umma Tegubda Liches Dian Raptore.'

Just then, one of the light bulbs in the room flickered and they shot both their heads up to look at it.

'Is that what it says on the coffin?' Bucky asked her, standing up and offering out his hand to help her.

'Yep. But what does it mean? It could be a message.'

'But what kind? Good or bad?'

'Who knows?' she said.

Bucky slapped her hand as she reached for a handful of popcorn. Reeling it back in, she glowered at him and then he noticed the wooden sticks of fire on the walls.

'Adds to the Mexico feeling!'

'Yeah. Anyway, as fascinating at this exhibit is, all the dead things are starting to make me feel uncomfortable. Wanna go and have a look at the Roman pottery again?'

'Sure.'

He placed his arm around her and she grinned as they both exited the Mayan exhibit but what they didn't notice was the mummy's soulless eye sockets flashing a dazzling purple.


	2. Chapter 2

That night, Stan Peters was sat on a chair nodding off during shift hours. He knew that if the owner of the museum came in tomorrow morning and saw him asleep he'd most likely be fired for not taking his job seriously but he was so tired. Being aged 66, he knew it would soon be time to retire.

BANG.

He arose from his chair in the main reception area and bathed in the moonlight from the glass door. Shining his light to the ceiling, he heard movement from upstairs. He felt a mix of emotions from anger (because he had been awoken) and fear. Courageously, he began his ascent into the unknown as he trekked up the elongated staircase, holding onto the black bannister for extra support.

'Hello?' he called out into the darkness with only silence as a reply. 'Shame on you! Trying to scare an old man half to death.'

More noise and it sounded like it was coming from the Mayan exhibit. As he made his way through the fake jungle room, his torchlight illuminated the faces of fearsome stuffed creatures such as jaguars and mountain lions. Even in death, they could still scare. This only added to the apprehension he was feeling. Maybe he had left a window open and a bird had flown in, frantically knocking items off shelves in a bid to escape.

Peering into the exhibit, he didn't notice anything out of place. The stone vases were in the same position as they were a few hours ago. The paintings on the walls were still intact and the coffin still had its see-through lid partially open… wait what?

Climbing over the blue protective ribbon, he ducked down to look inside the coffin and to his surprise… it was empty. The mummy displayed inside had vanished despite being there a couple of hours ago. That was when he heard feet dragging along the carpet behind him and he turned his body to see the beige mummy coming straight for him. With its arm extended, it appeared to roar quietly and then it wrapped its hand onto the man's face. He screamed in pain as smoke escaped from between the creature's fingers and then he fell to the floor. Dead.

'Why am I here again?' Clara said to herself as she looked around the main reception area of the museum. 'This doesn't make any sense.'

Peering down at her attire, she noticed she was barefoot wearing red pyjama bottoms and a navy blue top. Her hair was scraggy and rough too and as she let it fall through her fingertips, she knew it needed a good brush but that didn't matter. It was dark outside and the moonlight shone through the glass door.

That was when she heard a tremendous roar from behind her and she shrieked ever so loudly when she saw a beige mummy coming towards her. She screamed and screamed as she slowly backed away but she fell against a bear statue and it knocked over. Falling to the ground, she let out a shrill cry as she felt its hand on her face and then the smoke came out from its fingers and then she…

Clara took a large gasp of air. Scanning her bedroom, she noticed Bucky fast asleep in bed beside her and the moon shone through the curtains. She could relax now and she sighed a breath of relief. Closing her eyes, she respired and then she opened them and screamed once more. In the corner of the bedroom, stood the fearsome mummy with its arm extended and piercing eye sockets. In a puff of smoke, it was gone.

'Clara?' Bucky turned over and switched the bedside lamp on. 'What it is? What's wrong?'

'There was a… a… mummy in the corner.'

Bucky sat up and looked over at the supposed corner. The only thing there was a red bean bag full of washing that was begging to be washed. She laid back down and placed her head on his bare chest and tried to regulate her breathing. For the rest of the night, she didn't get a wink of sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Watching the television that morning, Clara was in utter shock. Dressed in her blue dressing gown and grey pyjama top, she slowly bit into her toast as she listened to what the news reporter had to say. A man had been found dead at the museum where she and Bucky were at yesterday. The museum was closed off for at least a few days whilst investigations were happening.

'I can't believe it,' she said, not taking her eyes off the television.

'I know,' Bucky probed the microwave. 'It was halfway through microwaving a bun as well.'

'I'm not on about the microwave,' she said, standing up from the sofa as she made her way to the kitchen where her lover was. 'A security guard was found at the museum we were at yesterday and that Mexican mummy has gone missing. And what did I see last night?'

'You think this is all connected?'

'Well it's got to be!' she waltzed off to the bedroom to change her clothes. 'Mexican mummies don't just appear in your bedroom at night for no reason. It's got to be that writing that was on the stone coffin like it was some sort of curse or awakening summoning or something.'

'Check the library out,' he gave up on the microphone and got a bowl and box of muesli from the cupboard. 'I'm sure they have stuff on Mexican curses.'

'Come on them,' she peeked her head around the corner. 'We haven't got long! I could be dead in a few weeks. I'm going to call Lucy and have her help us out. The more heads the better.'

At the central library, Lucy Charles waited outside dressed in black tank top and blue denim jacket. Smiling at Bucky and Clara she made her way towards them and she tried to hug the schoolteacher but she insisted there was no time.

'I got your message,' she admitted as they made their way into the library. 'You think a curse has been put on you?'

'I don't know whether it's just me or the both of us or what!'

The trio approached a small blonde woman at the main desk with red glasses and she looked away from the computer and glared up at them with an enthusiastic smile.

'Can I help you?'

'Have you got anything on curses?' Bucky asked while Clara noticed a stain on his grey t-shirt so she tried to get it off. He tugged at her dark purple dress to make her stop. 'Preferably Mexican mummy curses.'

'Try the supernatural section.'

Thanking the woman, he ushered the two men towards the supernatural section and he nearly tripped over a table leg but being behind them nobody else noticed.

After several hours of flicking through Mexican books and gothic literature, Clara eventually came across what she was looking for – Mayan curses. After looking at some of the symbols in the book she realised they didn't match the ones on her phone but she read along anyway.

'It says here some Mexican curses can awaken the mummies of the past.'

'Hang on,' Lucy pointed to some symbols on another page. 'Aren't they the ones that are on your phone?'

'Oh God,' Clara's eyes enlarged and growing concerned, Bucky leaned in over closer until Clara could smell his aftershave. 'It says that mummies' coffins engraved with these symbols hold mummies that can be awoken by speaking the symbols. It is an ancient Mayan curse that means the mummy will stalk its prey for two days and then drain its life force and thus becomes stronger.'

'If it even tries to lay a finger on you,' Bucky shook his head in disbelief. 'I will rip its bony arm off.'

'There's more,' she traced her finger along the text. 'If a curse is bestowed upon one's soul, one can remove it by speaking allowed the symbols it said to awaken it. When stalking its prey, it may appear in spiritual form to shake the victim. Well that explains the mummy in our bedroom.'

'But how are we going to speak the symbols?' asked Lucy. 'I mean do we have to be in the same presence as the mummy?'

'It says here that it needs to be within metres of its coffin.'

'So where in hell is the mummy?' Bucky snatched the book from his girlfriend's grasp to browse through it. 'It said on the news it had escaped from its coffin.'

'Well it's coming after Clara tonight,' Lucy blankly confessed and so the other two immediately glanced at her. 'If we have to be within metres of the coffin, then we have to get inside the museum.'

'How do we get inside the museum tonight?' asked Bucky. '1. The museum isn't open at night and 2. With that murder at the museum, we can't even get in during the day.'

'If it drains the life force of its victims,' Clara rose from her chair. 'It will have drained the life force of that security guards. It will have gotten stronger.'

'We have the psychic paper thing the Doctor made a copy of that he gave to you back at the apartment,' Bucky suggested and Clara's face lit up. 'We can pretend to be MI5 or something. We can hide in the restroom until night.'

'Sounds like a plan,' Lucy scooped the book and placed it in her brown handbag and so Bucky and Clara pulled a face. 'What?'

'That's theft,' admitted Clara.

'I'll bring it back,' she placed the bag over her shoulder and encouraged the others to make a move also. 'Besides, I think an ancient mummy trying to kill my best friend is a little bit more important than a stolen library book. Now off we go.'


	4. Chapter 4

'MI5?' the security guard said as he stood beside the blue police tape. 'What are you doing poking your noses into this? It's a normal death, isn't it?'

'Well that's what we're here to find out,' Bucky smiled at the man but he still seemed displeased with the three of them being there.

'Listen,' the man raised his arm but by that time Lucy had already managed to evade his watchful eye and slip inside the museum's main entrance. 'I don't like MI5 and I don't very much like Americans invading this country.'

Bucky was about to say something when Clara stepped forward. She may have been smaller than the rude security guard but she was very feisty.

'And I don't like racist judgemental bigots poking their noses into our business,' folding her arms, Bucky stared at her happily. 'Once you take that head of yours out of your arse and let us inside that building so we can do our job, I'm sure I'll also be very grateful. If you don't let us inside, I will be forced to have a word with Metropolitan Police to have their staffed reviewed. Do I make myself clear?'

'Ye… Yes Ma'am.'

'Excellent,' her frown turned upside down as she led Bucky up the steps. 'Have a nice day.'

'I'm so hot for you right now,' Bucky whispered into her ear and she giggled.

'You can kiss me later but right now we have to save my life.'

'Oh believe me, I will.'

'Which?'

'Both.'

The cubicle door was opened and out stepped a very stiff Clara Oswald. As she scratched her arm, she watched as her friend came out of the cubicle.

'That was so boring,' she claimed. 'My phone battery died out as well.'

'How you holding out, Buck?' Clara shouted over to the other cubicle and then Bucky came out.

'Not very well,' he said as he bent his neck and cracked it, something that made Clara cringe. 'Being stuck in a woman's toilet for six hours is no fun. Why didn't we go in the men's?'

'Because the urinals freak me out, I've told you that. Now come on, let's make our way to the Mayan section.'

Walking through the museum was positively eerie. The leering smiles of waxwork people sent shivers up Lucy's spine and the mammoth skeleton petrified Bucky. Clara held tightly onto her torch and shone it through the vast corridors, illuminating a 17th century pastel picture. The Mayan exhibit was on the floor above and they all swore they saw the caveman statue move.

'It's just our minds playing tricks on us,' claimed Bucky as he led the two girls up the staircase. 'We know this place is spooky so our brains make us think we saw something move.'

'What if it's like Night at the Museum?' Lucy snaked her way up the staircase. 'We could be upstairs and then one of those civil war dudes with a musket comes up and shoots us all in the stomach?'

'Do you mind, RL Stine?' Clara chuntered as she tripped on one of the steps.

As they entered the Mayan exhibit, they took a look at the empty coffin and then at the seven mummies stood in their own caskets.

'Where is the mummified bastard?' Bucky questioned no one in particular and that was when Lucy noticed something very unusual.

'You guys?' she said and so they booth looked at her. 'If there's seven mummies, why are only six of them in caskets?'

Suddenly, the beige mummy stepped forward and took a swipe at Lucy. Surprisingly, the creature was incredibly strong and she was ferociously launched at the stone vases, causing them to fall off. Bucky was about to tell Clara to read the symbols when it stumbled in between them. Another beige mummy appeared beside it.

'It can spiritually project itself,' screamed Clara as the spiritual mummy started chasing her down the staircase. The other one, made its way towards Bucky.

It followed him as he ran around the coffin and with its arm outstretched, its only desire was to drain his life force. Bucky sprinted towards the wall and pulled off a wooden stick. He fumbled for a lighter in his chino pocket but then realised he didn't smoke.

'Damn you for not smoking!' he angrily cried as he smacked the mummy with the stick. 'Leave us alone you haggard fiend!'

Now that it was stronger after draining the security guard's life force, it clasped hold of the stick and pulling it from the man's grasp, he tossed it towards the other end of the room. Bucky wanted to run but he couldn't leave Lucy as she tried to regain stance. He dropped to the floor and swivelled round holding his leg out. The fearsome mummy was knocked the floor and then Bucky ran towards Lucy, helped her up and escorted her out of the exhibit and down the stairs.

Unlucky for Clara, the spiritual mummy was very good at running and as she dodged past the Jacobean weaponry, she ran through the skeleton of the t-rex and screamed as she narrowly missed the mummy's tight grip. She tried to pull part of the skeleton off but the crafty museum staff had tightly screwed them in place. Making a run for the doorway, she darted past a javelin trapped in glass and lunged for the staircase. Its hand clamped onto her ankle and pulled her down the steps and she shrieked. Twizzling around, she kicked the mummy in the jaw and it fell back in pain and she used this opportunity to call for Bucky and Lucy as she made her way up the staircase.

Bucky and Lucy rushed through the crowd of model Terracotta Warriors as they felt the mummy followed after them. He felt it wrong to hold her hand but if this creature were to pull her from him, it would find it more difficult to pull them both. They paid no attention to the painting of the Great Wall of China as they ran out into the corridor and straight into a shocked Clara.

'Bucky,' she hugged him and kissed him hard. 'We need to get to the Mayan exhibit now.'

'Will you two stop loving each other up because that mummy is about ten metres away from us right now?'

The three of them sprinted towards the exhibit and running in, they glared at the empty coffin. They turned their heads to see the gruesome mummy coming towards them. Its features were hideous and grotesque.

It lunged for Clara and she ducked underneath the ribbon. Tossing Bucky her phone, she asked him to unlock the phone and read the symbol. Lucy went to kick the mummy but it grabbed hold of her foot, spun her around whilst she yelled and tossed her into the corner of the room.

'Bucky, hurry up!' she climbed inside of the coffin and then climbed back out again.

'What's your passcode?'

'2311,' she screamed as she tripped over the ribbon and fell to the floor. It was reaching its hand out and was metres away from her face. The smoke started pouring out of her hand and her facial expression thickened and contorted as its leering smile appeared. 'Hurry!'

'Umma Tegubda Liches Dian Raptore.'

But the mummy was still coming towards her. It didn't seem affected by the words at all.

'Say them with more intent,' screamed Lucy from across the room.

'Umma Tegubda Liches Dian Raptore.'

Like magic, the mummy flinched and extended its hips. Catalina shrieked with pain as she felt her system turn to dust and atoms. With its arms outstretched and its ankles bending, it fell forwards and Clara thought the menace was going to land on her so she extended her arms outwards and then the mummy fell apart and in seconds, the parts dissolved into nothingness.

'Thank God,' Bucky raced towards Clara and scooped her up.

He looked over at Lucy who finally managed to stand and she too ran over to Clara and helped her up. Blinking, Clara stared at the empty coffin, relieved she had been saved.

'Only one problem,' she said. 'What about the mummy's missing body? There won't be an attraction anymore.'

'Oh but there is one,' Bucky declared and with that, he craned in and kissed Clara and she placed her hand on his cheek and kissed him back and Lucy rolled her eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

Back at the flat, Bucky and Clara were curled up on the sofa watching a panel show. A woman was ranting about public transport prices when Clara decided to bring up the events of the day.

'What's going to happen to us now?' Clara probed him and puzzled, he stared at her. 'I mean, there's CCTV throughout that building. There's gonna be videos of us three running away from a Mexican mummy monster.'

'Oh don't worry about that,' he grinned. 'I've asked a good old friend at SHIELD to take care of that. Believe me, Leo Fitz is a whizz with computers. He said he will hack into the CCTV system and wipe the footage. So we won't get into trouble with the police and Catalina the mummy will never be shown to the public.'

'But she was though! That poor girl was murdered for absolutely no reason whatsoever and then she was put on display for everyone to see.'

'At least she doesn't have to be anymore. Maybe killing the mummified version of her was the nicest thing to do.'

'I guess.'

Clara sank into Bucky and listened to the television and thought about what she was going to teach the kids at Coal Hill School the next morning.

'Mistress,' Clarissa approached the female as she tapped away on her iPad. 'I just found out footage was taken from a SHIELD interception of Bucky Barnes and Clara Oswald. How is the Favour doing?'

'The Favour is incomplete yet.'

'When will it be?'

'When the time is right. But in order for the Favour to be completed, we need Bucky Barnes and when the time is right… we'll snatch him from that silly brunette.'

She burst into a hysterical fit of laughter.

'How's White Cobra doing?'

'Setting up new bases, Mistress.'

'Excellent,' she stared into the creature in the stasis pod in her office and laughed even more. 'Soon, very soon, the Apocalypse will come.'

 **NEXT TIME: A STRING OF DISAPPEARANCES RUIN BUCKY AND CLARA'S WEEKEND HOLIDAY IN BLACKPOOL. AND WHAT IS LURKING BENEATH THE OCEAN?**


End file.
